By Hajer Nakua, Recipe Developer.

Meet Khbeiza – traditional stuffed Libyan buns! Traditionally, this dish is made from a fluffy dough stuffed with tuna, however recently, it’s been popular to stuff it with spinach. The reason why this dish is very popular in Libyan cuisine is the light and airy texture of the bread.

There are a few critical food items that Libyans cannot love without: bread, tuna, olive oil, and harrisa (hot sauce), and macroona mbakabka (macaroni in a soupy sauce). Libyans love bread SO MUCH that their main dish will be pizza, their side dish will be sliced baguettes and for added measure they’ll likely include this recipe at the dinner table as well. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find Libyans constantly snacking on plain bread!

Many khbeiza recipes call for high amounts of butter to achieve a brioche texture, but this recipe uses healthier alternatives without compromising the classic flavour and texture of the dough – even to the surprising approval of my mom, who doesn’t like compromising the traditional approach to recipes! This recipe omits the butter completely and uses ½ whole wheat dough to increase fibre! The key to this recipe is making sure the dough is mostly tacky but a little bit sticky. Whole wheat dough is naturally more dense than white dough, so if your dough is dry then the buns will not by light and airy. LET’S GET COOKING!

RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE DOUGH:

• 2 cups of whole wheat flour
• 2 cups of white flour
• ½ cup of good quality olive oil
• ½ cup of skim milk powder
• 2 cups of water
• 1 TBSP of dry and active yeast
• ½ TSPN Stevia (Eg. Greeniche Stevia) (or honey)
• 1 TBSP of salt

FOR THE SPINACH STUFFING:

• A few cups of fresh spinach or a package or frozen spinach (thawed and drained of excess water)
• 3 TBSP of cream cheese (low fat)
• 2 TBSP of lemon
• 1 small head of onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• Salt + pepper + red chilli flakes

FOR THE TUNA STUFFING:

• 1 can of tuna (I prefer the ones canned with olive oil, but if you want to lower the calories, use the ones canned with water)
• Harissa (this can be bought an Arab supermarket, but if you can’t find it, your favourite hot sauce will do)
• Sliced Olives

DIRECTIONS

FOR THE DOUGH:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in the bowl of your standing mixer (or a regular bowl if kneading by hand)
2. Add the olive oil and water to the bowl
3. Knead on medium-low if using standing mixer
4. Check the stickiness of the dough after 4-5 minutes. If your dough is too sticky, then add a little bit of whole wheat flour (1/3 of a cup at a time). When you touch the dough, a tiny bit should be stuck to your fingers but you should be able to remove your fingers without any resistance.
5. After this stage continue to knead for 6-7 minutes. If kneading by hand, this will take 16-20 minutes
6. Cover with plastic wrap for 2 hours until its doubled in volume

FOR THE SPINACH STUFFING:

1. In a frying pan, saute onions and garlic until translucent and add in fresh or frozen spinach
2. Once cooked, add in cream cheese, salt, pepper and lemon juice and mix until combined
3. Flour your work surface and add ½ the remaining dough and roll out into a rough circle shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect, the less perfect it is, the more homemade it is!
4. Slice the dough like you would a pizza into 8 triangles and then from the tip of the triangle, slice little threads
5. Place a dollop of the spinach mixture onto the base of the triangle and roll until the slices are on top
6. Once you assembled all the crescents, let the dough rise for an additional 15 minutes

FOR THE TUNA STUFFING:

1. Mix together canned tuna, harrisa (north African hot sauce, but any hot sauce will do)
2. Oil your fingers with a little olive oil and take a small piece of dough and flatten it out on your hand
3. Add a TSP of the tuna mixture to the middle of the flattened dough and add one slice of an olive and fold all the ends together
4. Once you assembled all the buns, let the dough rise for an additional 15 minutes

FINISHING TOUCHES:

1. Preheat your oven to 395 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Beat one egg and brush on all the buns then add sesame seeds
3. Place each baking sheet separately in the oven for 18 minutes

I hope you enjoy this recipe and tag us @amanahfitness on Instagram if you make it!!!

PS…. We’re excited to unveil something HUGE we’ve been working on since last year… ?